Article Review

Article Review on ‘Young Grads Sell Bodies for Easy Money’

By Wong Pek Mei, A.Raman and Allison Lai

             

It is certain and can be guaranteed that most people are very disappointed with the matter where students tend to sell bodies to earn easy money. It is so unfortunate knowing the fact students are willing to be involved in this immoral activity in order to fund their degrees or to maintain their high maintenance lifestyle. These students who offer services such as escorting, massage, sex or maybe all of the mentioned, does not realize their actions are turning to prostitution business in growing numbers in our country especially in big cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya and Johor Bahru which is well known by all is an illegal activity in our country and may be penalized if found guilty. 

            Furthermore, it is also believed that female students aged between 16-25 years old are the ones who usually encouraged and jump into this trade for easy money or out of desperation to get cash. The situation in Malaysia can be considered quite horrific as cases like this are being reported everyday but not all are being revealed to the public. Not just yet. Cities like Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya are known to have one of the highest amounts of reported cases on this issue.

One of the factors why young graduates have the tendency to lure in this immoral behavior is because of influence by peers. Peers play a vital and significant role and can also be considered as the most effective and reliable when it comes to influencing and persuading others. But however things can turn ugly and go absolutely wrong if a person tries to lure or persuade a person to be involved in a morally wrong activity such as in this case selling body to get easy money. A person may be seduced to be a part of this immoral activity after witnessing how fast her or his friend is able to get high “income” and is able to spend on or buy anything they wished and thought they would never lay hands on before this. Most importantly, they need not worry about the price they are about to pay for the desired item. Trend is another cause which is closely related to the previously mentioned key factor which is influence by peers. In the first place, a student may not lead this kind of lifestyle but due to peer pressure, curiosity and simply have the habit of trying something new may influence him or her to finally follow the footsteps of their friend in practicing and exploring a different new level of experience in a student’s life.

I actually have asked before a few students who used to be involved and some still is regarding this matter. At first it was difficult to make them come out of their shell mainly because they are embarrassed to talk openly about it. I grabbed the opportunity by asking what was it that made them do this, go into sex industry. Most of them confessed poverty is the key factor and they need to finance their education especially the students who survived on their own without parent’s financial support or any loan or scholarship. They agreed it is relatively easy and time-efficient to make money but there are times when they realized and worried their “side business” may damage and jeopardize their future career as a student. They went into education to not have to make choices like these. This kind of services or lifestyle only exists because people are willing to pay for it. The question is how far would you willing to go to pay off your high maintenance lifestyle?

Online Journalism and Human Rights

Introduction

Online journalism can be classified in the fifth estate as it uses the Internet as its main medium of conveying information and news. Globalization has managed to open the door for online journalism to participate in sharing the responsibility of the media such as the watchdog and whistleblower. It is a vital role played by this type of media in fulfilling their obligations to the society. The traditional media has been a rigid information source and closely scrutinized by the authorities, the public have turned to alternative media for uncensored information in order for them to be critical in their opinion as well as being objective in making any personal decision.

According to Article 19, Universal Declarations of Human Rights, everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Align with the subject mattered in Article 19, online journalism is applying it in upholding and protecting the human rights by providing adequate information needed by the society. Hence, there are imperative issues related to human rights have been brought up by the alternative media that gave huge impact to the community such as WikiLeaks controversial in exposing official secret documents to the public. This is important for the public’s knowledge for them to start to pay attention on their human rights in their country.

Definition of online journalism and human rights

Online journalism is defined as reporting and other journalism produced or distributed via the Internet (Fact-Archive.com, 2005). Online journalism could vary from distributing news through websites or one of the most prevalent online journalism is blogging. Blogging is a form of medium where the news is written and sometimes provides analysis of certain events through the eye of the writer. One of the earliest sites specializing in linking news sources was links.net which was created in 1994 by Justin Hall (Radcliffe, 2008). The general idea of typical online journalism is that the journalists have to make decisions on which media formats effectively conveyed the message, allow interactivity with the public’s respond, consider ways hyperlink the stories with other resources (Deuze, 2001). In respond to this typical functional idea, online journalism has developed its functions to fulfilling the social responsibility due to the lack of freedom of expression in the traditional media as the journalists are not allowed to express their own ideas but rather to succumb to the agenda setting of the media organization of traditional media.

As mentioned in precedent paragraph, online journalism is using its vast ability of providing information to the public as social responsibility in tandem with protecting the human rights legitimately owned by the society. Human rights according to the United Nation is the rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. These rights are ranged from article 1 to article 30 which specifies on different matters. It is developed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 (un.org, 2011). Relation to online journalism, article 19 has specifically touched on the freedom of opinion and expression as well as the right to access information without of the frontiers.

Online Journalism, whistleblower and protecting human rights

Journalism has obligation to its infamous role as the watchdog and whistleblower to the public. It means should there be any misused of power by the authorities, the media would act as whistleblower that would inform the public of the scenario. This is a crucial role as check and balance of the authorities. Subsequently, it would lead to protecting human rights of the society in terms of indicating the public of problems which arose in the administration such as corruption and eventually protecting the welfare of the people. There are many cases which involves the exposure of corruption. It happens due to the non transparency of administration’s transition in handling the currency in the country. Lack of information or biased information is a sign of oppressing the human rights deserved for the society as well as preventing the society to choose a better government to feed their needs.

There are websites designed specifically to act as whistleblower, such as WikiLeaks, Pinoyleaks, Thaileaks and Indoleaks. This websites are purposely designed to distribute any information obtained from the sources regarding the misused of power of the authorities. Apart from that, there are also blogs as means of expressing opinion freely. Prof. Nagwa Fahmy (2010) proposed in her research that blogs act as a promoting digital democracy and defending human rights, with implication on developing the public sphere. This is supported by Mckee (2005) that internet accessibility made the blogs as vital communication tool for information and ideas to be informed and interact. Therefore, it creates public awareness and involvement in local issues that consequently would mobilize their country towards democratization which shows a form of protecting the citizens human rights.

Study Case: Revolution of Egypt 

The Egyptians has brought shocked to the world when they protested to overrule the Hosni Mubarak’s reign for 33 years and online journalism has everything got to do with it. In Egypt, the New Social Movement activists has moved online in discussing matters on politics, economics, human rights and social issues that are overlooked by Egypt’s mainstream media in blogs (Nagwa, 2010). Blogs has been the battle field of modern Egyptians for democracy and political reform as well as engaging in social movements. Activist-bloggers extended their blog’s function to the street as they use it to mobilize their supporters and demonstrate for political change and reform (Nagwa, 2010). The recent event of blog activities has caused the Egyptians to protests against their government and demanded resignation from Hosni Mubarak. Eventually, Egypt now has achieved democracy in their country and their human rights are being uphold caused by online journalism.

Conclusion

Online journalism cannot be seen as a moderate medium in instilling public awareness as it has developed its function into shaping the public’s opinion. It has even brought revolution to a country. It is also best to remember, if the medium of online journalism is being used to its maximum with positivity, upholding human rights is no longer an obstacle against misused of power and oppression.

Analisa Artikel Kesan Kebiadaban Dunia Siber

            Apabila isu penyalahgunaan internet hangat diperkatakan, saya amat bersetuju dengan kenyataan Dr. Rahmat Ghazali di dalam artikel beliau yang bertajuk ‘Kesan Kebiadaban di Dunia Siber’ bahawa “kebebasan siber telah disalahertikan oleh sebahagian besar penguna internet”. Kita dapat lihat sendiri impak negatif terhadap masyarakat negara kita khususnya golongan remaja akibat tiadanya sekatan daripada pihak kerajaan berhubung dengan penyalahgunaan kebebasan menggunakan internet. Kes seperti seks bebas adalah contoh perbuatan yang sering dikaitkan dengan kesan Internet di mana pelaku tersebut berkemungkinan dipengaruhi oleh kandungan-kandungan yang boleh merosakkan minda mereka.

Selain daripada itu, sifat ingin tahu atau musykil yang terlalu tinggi juga boleh mendorong mereka untuk mencuba apa yang dilihat atau dibaca di Internet terutamanya bahan-bahan yang berunsurkan pornografi yang kemudian juga boleh menyebabkan terjadinya kes yang lebih teruk seperti pembuangan bayi yang seperti diketahui ramai semakin menular di negara kita.  

Menurut Dr. Rahmat di dalam artikel beliau juga, pada awalnya usaha kerajaan yang membenarkan kebebasan pengunaan Internet adalah “untuk mengutamakan pencambahan maklumat, ilmu dan idea” bagi mengalakkan dan membolehkan masyarakat kita untuk berdaya saing seiring dengan kemajuan dunia sejagat khususnya dari aspek teknologi. Tapi sebaliknya telah berlaku dimana usaha baik kerajaan telah disalah tafsirkan kerana kita tidak dapat menafikan rakyat kita lebih cenderung dan gemar menggunakan internet sebagai medium untuk melepaskan perasaan atau menyuarakan pendapat mengenai sesuatu isu tetapi secara tidak beretika.  Mereka sering menggunakan bahasa-bahasa yang kesat ataupun mengeluarkan kenyataan-kenyataan yang mungkin berbau fitnah ataupun pembohongan.

Perkara ini sering  berlaku dalam isu yang berkaitan dengan politik seperti yang telah dipraktikkan oleh Raja Petra di mana dia telah mengutuk pihak kerajaan secara umum di blognya. Dia juga telah meletakkan maklumat-maklumat yang dianggap sulit dan sensitif oleh pihak kerajaan tanpa memberitahu sumber atau kesahihannya untuk tantapan awam.

Oleh itu, pihak yang bertanggungjawab harus mengambil tindakan yang sewajarnya untuk mengawal penggunaan internet secara berleluasa di negara kita. Ini adalah untuk menjaga keharmonian dan perpaduan rakyat di Malaysia.